


Running  From A Burning Sun

by CityEscape4



Category: RWBY
Genre: Mentions of Blood, Mentions of Canon Dismemberment, Multi, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-06-23 21:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15615744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CityEscape4/pseuds/CityEscape4
Summary: What if Blake had made it to the Rose/Xiao-Long household before taking her leave? Takes place post Vale’s Grimm invasion but before Ruby wakes up.





	Running  From A Burning Sun

**Author's Note:**

> this was an old draft i'd left since the ending of Season 3, that I decided to go back and touch up on after burning out on writing for a different series. I'd always wanted to finish this fic, but 1) time never seemed to work out, and 2) I was afraid of all the Bumbleby/Black Sun ship wars on Tumblr (where all my fics used to be).

She burned.

She was burning.

 _Everything_ was burning, raging, scalding; her emotions, her heart, her body… _her right arm._

Even in this bleak, black void of a dream (was it a dream? There was nothing there to be _dreaming_ about.) she could feel a burning ache in her right arm. Or… above it? It was there, but at the some time it wasn’t. It was strange… Concerning. As much as she wanted to bring herself to wake up to investigate, she was just so tired…

The feeling of someone’s hand brushing along the top of her hair didn’t do much to help her desire to awaken either. The action was comforting, lulling her back into her dreamless deep sleep. She could barely make out words spoken by voices she knew: one she had heard every day for nearly the past year, and one she had heard all her life, though not nearly as often anymore.

“…s is my faul..”

“…n’t blame yourse..”

“…or me! If I had stoppe…”

She was beginning to fade from that awkward limbo between wake and rest, finally giving into the latter one more.

* * *

Sun frowned, standing in the hallway of Yang and Ruby’s dad’s house, between the two separate rooms which his friends rested in. He growled in irritation at the entire situation and leaned against the wall, his tail coiling and uncoiling itself in an attempt to relieve him of some of his irritated anger.

Less than two days ago, no one would have predicted this. The Vytal Festival and Tournament having turned out the way it did, the Grimm invasion, Blake’s wounds, Ruby’s unexplained state, Yang’s arm, Penny, Phyrra…

To be quite frank, it was all pissing him off. Not that he was angry at them, he was just angry at how events had turned out, at the woman who’s voice had infiltrated the speaker system, the woman who was undoubtedly behind all of this. As well as the White Fang.

The White Fang were the ones who’d wounded Blake, who’d cost Yang her arm.

They’d pay.

Sun was brought out of his stewing anger as the door to where Ruby was resting opened. A tall, lanky man who smelled of alcohol walked out, his expression neutral as Sun watched him walk out the hall. His name was Qrow, as he’d learned shortly after the man had retrieved Ruby.

Cautiously, Sun peeked into Ruby’s room, his frown softening momentarily as he watched Ruby and Yang’s father gently stroke his younger daughter’s face, the concerned parent leaning in to gently press a kiss to her forehead.

Moving into the doorway, Sun leaned against the doorframe, folding his arms. He hadn’t seen Ruby conscious since she’d left with Weiss to find Jaune and Phyrra. “How is she?”

Taiyang turned his head, then sighed and looked back to the resting girl before him. “Worn out. She has a couple bruises here and there, but that’s the extent of her wounds. She just needs to keep resting.”

It was obvious he was struggling to keep himself together. It didn’t take much for Sun to figure out that neither Ruby or Yang’s mothers were in the picture. The poor guy had been so close to losing not one, but both his children… Sun couldn’t even begin to imagine how he felt.

“You can come in here if you’d like,” Taiyang said softly, “as long as you don’t wake her up.”

“Thanks.” Sun’s tail curled around his waist as he stood upright. He walked into the room, grabbing a chair from the corner of the room, and placed it with the back facing the foot of Ruby’s bed. He sat with one leg on either side of the chair, his arms folded across the top of it as he rested his head on them.

Taiyang couldn’t help a weak smile at that, sitting properly back in his own chair. “You remind me of Qrow doing that.”

“Really?” Sun chuckled a little bit. “Funny thing, that Qrow guy said something like that to me earlier.”

Taiyang raised a brow. “What’d he say?”

“He said I both looked like and reminded him of a young you, and that it figured Ruby and Yang would be friends with me.”

Both males shared a quiet laugh, before silence filled the room again. Things were quiet for a moment before Sun spoke once more. “Speaking of Yang, how’s she doing?”

Taiyang sighed and hung his head a bit. “She’s still resting too.”

“And Blake?”

“We’ve patched her wounds up, but she refuses to rest. She–”

“Hasn’t left Yang’s side.” Sun finished with a sigh, closing his eyes as he exhaled.

“You sound upset.” Taiyang replied, a small frown tugging on his lips.

“I don’t mean to.” Sun’s tail unwrapped itself from his waist, and hung behind him lamely, slowly swinging back and forth. “I just… I get she’s upset, but Blake needs to rest. The White Fang… they really did a number this time.” His hands clenched the corners of the back of the chair. “I should have gone with Yang. Weiss and the others were all safe. If I had gone with her, maybe she and Blake–”

“You can’t change the past, kid.”

Taiyang and Sun both turned their heads to see Qrow standing in the door way, taking a swig from his flask. “You made a choice. Yang made a choice. Blake made a choice. Your choices ended you up where you are now. Wounded, and scarred, but alive. Take that for what it is.”

Taiyang glared at his daughters’ uncle. “Qrow–“

“Say you had gone,” Qrow continued, ignoring Taiyang. “Can you say for certain that you know what the outcome would have been? Now maybe you might have come out of there, all unharmed. But maybe instead of Yang losing her arm, you would have lost your tail. Maybe you both would be laying in a bed right now, while Blake felt guilty about both of you.”

“Maybe Blake wouldn’t even be here. Maybe you or Yang wouldn’t even be here. Maybe all three of you wouldn’t be here, and everything would be that much worse.”

Sun grimaced and looked away, hating that he knew Qrow was right. There was silence for a moment, before the sound of Qrow opening his flask again broke the quiet, the lanky old man drinking a bit more.

“You can’t change the past.” He repeated after swallowing, screwing the cap back on his flask. “So what do you do? You do what you can to make sure the past doesn’t repeat itself. To make sure any of this,” Qrow’s wrist waved around in a circle, his open hand gesturing to all around him, “doesn’t happen again.”

Something in Sun compelled him to glance to Taiyang then. The elder blond looked almost ashamed, his gaze not meeting either Qrow’s or Sun’s. Instead he looked over to Ruby, pain evident in his gaze.

“I’ve given this speech one too many times.” Qrow suddenly said with a sigh. “Maybe I’m the one who needs to do something different.” With that, he left the door frame, walking off yet again.

There was silence among the two blonds, before Taiyang spoke. “Heh… I guess Qrow was right. You kind of are like a young me.”

“Huh?” Sun’s eyebrows narrowed in confusion, watching Taiyang as he stood. “Whaddya mea–”

“I’m going to check on Yang.” Taiyang interrupted as he stood and began walking out of the room. “You can come with me, or stay in here if you’d like.”

Sun looked over Ruby for a moment, watching her sleep peacefully, before standing as well, following Taiyang out of the room, into Yang’s room.

Taiyang knocked twice gently on the door, walking in when there was no answer. As Sun stepped into the room, a small gasp escaped him, his eyes widening slightly as he saw Blake sitting in a chair by Yang’s side, slumped over the edge of the bed, asleep. Before Sun could make any move to go to her and make sure she was ok, Taiyang was on a knee, kneeling by her side.

“Blake?” His tone was gentle, though it was obvious he was slightly concern. “Blake, wake up. Sleeping like that isn’t good for your wounds.”

A small groan escaped the raven haired cat faunus, who seethed as she sat up, the hand that wasn’t resting atop Yang’s moving to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She was dressed in a loose tank top, presumably one of Yang’s Sun figured, which gave both her and her wound room to breathe.

“See?” Taiyang said with a slight huff. “I understand you’re upset, but please, if you need to sleep, you need to lay in a bed. Sleeping like this puts unnecessary pressure and strain on your wound, and–”

He stopped speaking as the hand that Blake was using to rub her eyes moved to her wounded side, holding it as she refused to vocalize her pain. Taiyang’s expression turned to one of worry as he noticed that her wound had opened up a bit, and was slowly bleeding through her tank top.

“Blake!” Sun stepped forward in worry, a hand extended, ready to grab her shoulder in comfort, but was stopped by Taiyang.

“Sun. Go to the front room, get the medikit from the coffee table and bring it here, quick.” Taiyang’s usually smooth voice was sharp, tart with urgency. Sun took no time to hesitate as he turned on his heel and left the room.

Sun made his way to the front room in the house, the medikit right where Taiyang said it would be. He grabbed it and began making his way back to Yang’s bedroom, but not before noting that Qrow wasn’t anywhere in sight, and that there was an out-of-place paper folded on top of the medikit. 

The moment he was back in Yang’s room. Sun handed the medikit to Taiyang. The older male immediately moved to open it, only to stop momentarily as he took notice of the folded paper. He scoffed then, and opened the medikit without even glancing at the paper, which promptly fell to the floor. 

“Hey–”

“It’s from Qrow. He left. More than likely to meet up with Glynda about something.” Taiyang sighed, picking out gauze and some sort of liquid Sun couldn’t identify, though it no doubt it was for Blake’s reopened wound. “Now step outside while I change out her bandages. I’ll call you in here if I need you.”

Sun nodded, and left the room, closing the door behind him. However, unbeknownst to Taiyang, Sun had nabbed Qrow's letter with his tail.

> Tai, something's come up about Ozpin. I'll be back soon.

Sun frowned. While mention of Ozpin should have been good news, something in Sun's gut was telling him that it was anything _but_ good news.

Afrer being left to stew in his own thoughts for a few moments, the door to Yang's room opened, and Taiyang stepped out, medikit in hand. When he closed the door behind him, Sun frowned. "How's Blake?"

"Better." Taiyang replied tiredly. "Thankfully her wound hadn't opened up too much. I'm giving her a minute to put on a clean top. I know Yang's night shirts are a little big on her, but I'd rather them that way; Gives her wound some breathing air rather than being restricted."

Sun only nodded, and after a few moments of awkward silence, Taiyang moved to knock on the door. "Blake, sweetheart? Are you good for us to come in?"

There was a heavy silence that worried Sun, but after a moment or so, Blake's faint reply of, "Yeah." was heard through the door. Taiyang opened Yang's bedroom door, only to sigh as he found Blake back in her seat, hunched over and at Yang's side.

"Blake, this isn't good for your wound."

Blake muttered something in response, but it was unintelligible to Taiyang's ears. Sun however, frowned at her words.

"Blake," Taiyang began, "I don't know what you're saying..."

“This is my fault...” Blake murmured, gripping Yang's hand tightly. "This is all my fault!"

"Blake, you can’t blame yourself for this--”

"She was looking for me, calling out for me! If I had stopped Adam sooner, she'd still have her arm! She'd be awake and fine and not...!” Tears burned in Blake's eyes, and she turned to look at both Sun and Taiyang.

"It's not your fault." Taiyang reassured her, gently reaching out a hand to rub her back sympathetically. "The only person at fault is the one who did this to her."

"This," Blake said, notioning to Yang with the hand not grasping hers, "is your _daughter_. You shouldn't be this... this--"

"Blake," Sun finally spoke up, causing both Taiyang and Blake to look at him. "I know you're hurting, but we can't change what happened. It happened, and its over. If she hadn't found you, who knows where you'd be."

Taiyang exhaled at that, nodding his head gently. Qrow's words really _had_ rubbed off on this kid, huh? "He's right, Blake. Am I upset about my daughter? Of course I am, but I'm thankful she's alive. It could have been much worse, and the only reason it wasn't was because of _you_. You got her away from the man who did this to her, and I'm thankful for that."

It was then that Blake finally allowed herself to break down, the first Sun had seen her truly do since she'd brought Yang back to them at Beacon's courtyard. She let go of Yang's hand finally, pressing her palms to her eyes as she cried, and Taiyang gently hugged her, being wary not to agitate her wound.

When Sun and Taiyang awoke the next morning, they were surprised to find Blake gone. Sun left as soon as he could, much to Taiyang's worry, to find her.

When Yang finally awoke, she couldn't explain the phantom pressure that was in her hand, like someone should have been there, holding it.


End file.
